In recent years, cold-formed steel framing for both residential and commercial applications has grown at a tremendous rate. Today, engineers, architects and contractors appreciate that light steel framing is a better value than more traditional materials such as masonry or wood.
Light steel framing is ideal for floors, roofs, support structures for finishes, non-load bearing walls, and even load-bearing walls up to approximately nine stories. With wall systems, whether they are load-bearing or non load-bearing, it is customary to use connectors or clips to secure individual metal studs to overlying and/or underlying support structures. Various connector or clip designs are known. For example, it is known to use simple L-shaped connector designs to interconnect metal studs with an underlying or overlying floor structure, for example. However, typical L-shaped connectors may not necessarily handle the variety of loads and forces that are sometimes experienced where studs are joined or secured to a floor or other support structure. More particularly, conventional connector designs may not always efficiently and effectively resist uplift, horizontal and rotational loads that are experienced about connecting points between such studs and an adjacent support structure.
Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a more heavy duty and durable connector for connecting metal studs to floors and other adjacent support structures that will effectively resist uplift, horizontal and rotational loads.